Favorite Teams

Microsoft has raised eyebrows for delving into the Hotmail account of a blogger to ferret out a former employee suspected of stealing trade secrets, according to federal court papers.
(Steven Senne/The Associated Press)

Media from as far off as Taiwan and India were reporting the news that Microsoft hacked into the emails and instant messages of a blogger to identify the former Microsoft employee it believes served as the source.

The software giant accessed the blogger's Microsoft-operated Hotmail and message accounts, according to a story by The New York Times, which also said such a move "without a court order was highly unusual and raises questions about its protections for customer data, privacy lawyers say."

Meanwhile, former employee Alex Kibkalo was charged with stealing trade secrets in U.S. District Court in Seattle this week.

Among other news from Northwest courts:

Jurors in Eugene will reconvene next week to hear testimony about whether Johan Gillette should be sent to death row for beating to death his 73-year-old father and his father's 71-year-old domestic partner. Prosecutors said the younger Gillette, who was found guilty on Wednesday, flew into a rage over his father's plan to boot him and his girlfriend out of a trailer on the elder Gillette's property.

A Marion County grand jury indictment says that a 17-year-old boy accused of killing his mother offered to pay his 17-year-old friend to help out. The Salem Statesman Journal reports that the Michelle Pearson's son and friend are accused of aggravated murder and other charges. Pearson, who lived in Keizer, was an accountant for the Oregon Department of Human Services.

Lawyers for the Deschutes County Commission have filed papers with the Oregon Court of Appeals, asking the appeals court to uphold a lower court decision that the county isn't liable for paying a $710,000 settlement to three former deputy district attorneys. The Bend Bulletin reports that the county believes those former prosecutors were state -- not county -- employees.

The Washington Supreme Court has rejected convicted serial killer Robert Lee Yates Jr.'s attempt to back out of guilty pleas that netted him a 408-year sentence for killing 13 women, many in Spokane.